The Love Boat
by T-R-Us
Summary: Itey’s the Captain’s son. Racetrack’s dad runs the bar. Bumlets cooks, Mush sweeps. A group of teens roughing it the deluxe way on a luxurious cruise ship – it’s anchors aweigh on the Pacific Princess. [Casting Call Closed]
1. Introduction

**Title:** The Love Boat  
**Rating:** T  
**Authoress:** T-R-Us  
**Setting:** AU: Modern-Day  
**Upload Day:** Saturdays

**Summary:** Itey's the Captain's son. Racetrack's dad runs the bar. Bumlets cooks, Mush sweeps. A group of teens roughing it the deluxe way on a luxurious cruise ship – it's anchors aweigh on the Pacific Princess.

**Disclaimer:** Yadda yadda, owneth Newsies, I do not. (Except the DVD, CD, complete film score, cabbie hat, marbles, website, pictures and dexterity to dance the dances.) Also – all original characters belong to themselves, and I have no connection to Princess Cruises, or the Love Boat TV show which inspired this fic.

**Authoress's Note:** The casting call is at the bottom, and information regarding the closing of it, etc., etc. are there as well. However, it's strongly suggested you take the time to actually _read_ the story before you go hop-skipping down there. Notes for this introduction – it's in a first person narrative, but that's probably only going to be this one chapter, largely because I have no charries other then mine, a friend's and the Newsies. On another note, my character isn't paired off to anyone. It's more interesting to let others have who they want.

**Chapter One: Introduction **

For the past two weeks, every one I knew had been studying. End of the year exams will do that to you – especially if you, like most of my friends, are stuck with calculus, physics, chemistry or law. Fortunately for me, while every one was holed away with their text books, I was packing my sunglasses and fifteen different pairs of bathing suits. Man, do I love summer.

Anyone who might care to look at my course selections for the semester would probably see me as being "artsy" – instrumental music, photography, drama and a spare will certainly give that impression – but I picture myself as someone a little more structured than that. Some of my friends would go far enough to call me square – but who's the one without any formal exams, huh?

I like to think there's a reason for every thing I do. Music is something I just love doing. I've been second chair in the flute section for about as long as I can remember. Second chair doesn't bother me so much though, I'm the one who's responsible for handing out music and fundraising forms. (First chair is an amazing flautist, but not such a good passer-outer.) Photography is my other 'sit back and enjoy the class' class, and drama is good for my job.

You see, I've been working with people for even longer than I've been second chair in concert band, and is that ever a long time. This sorta brings me back to my classes, of course. My spare. Most high school juniors take spares so they can goof off and have no class. I use mine to edit passenger manifests for my family's cruise line.

Got you there, huh?

For three generations, us Davenport's have been running a cruise line that functions throughout the Caribbean. We have a fleet that's six ships strong, and operating year-round. It's cool – not every one gets to spend their summer as a youth vacation director on a cruise ship, which is what I've been doing every summer for my entire life.

"Good morning, Chelsea." I strolled into the kitchen, nodding at my mother's greeting, before taking my place across from Vincent at the breakfast table. Toast and orange juice all set out for me, courtesy of my mom, who as usual was feeling a little teary about me going away for three months.

"What time are we leaving?" I directed this at Vincent, who looked half asleep over his bowl of cheerios. For someone who can be so fully alert at six o'clock in the morning at sea, my cousin has never been much of a morning person at home. He blinked up at me blearily.

"I think we want to be out of here by twelve." He slurred, before returning to a semi-comatose state.

Seriously. Vincent is more like a brother to me than a cousin, which may or may not be a bad thing. For him, at least, it certainly entitled me to kick him in the shin, eliciting an expression of surprise. At least we were making some segue way on the waking up front. "Did you have any particular reason for doing that?"

I blinked. "Who needs a reason?"

Vincent has been living with my family since he was three. Oh, my aunt and uncle aren't dead or anything. Uncle Peter is the captain of one of our ships – the Pacific Princess – the one we spend every summer aboard. Aunt Alessandra works on some of the islands where we port, smoothing things over with the locals and such. My own parents work the financial side of the business from our home in San Diego.

"Hey princess, you all packed up?"

I suffered through the kiss that my dad administered to my head, and watched as he ruffled Vincent's hair, asking if he was all set to go, too. I think it helps that my dad is a lot like Uncle Peter. How could Itey possibly miss his own dad when he has the exact clone right here?

Itey. That's his nickname. We all go by nicknames when we're at sea, it makes the experience so much more… I don't know. Anyway, both Itey's and mine are from when we were really little. For some reason, when Itey came out of the womb, he was a male clone of his mom. My Aunt Alessandra is pure Italian, and for a few years couldn't even speak a word of English. Cool, huh? That's why Itey's Itey.

And me? I'm _the Ruse_. There's a longer explanation, but it mostly just incorporates my love of X-Men, and an uncanny ability to render myself seemingly invisible during a game of hide-and-go-seek.

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There is nothing so beautiful as seeing _your_ ship looming up in front of you in the harbor. The Princess is surprisingly small compared to the other ships in our line – small ship feel, big ship choices. She's no yacht though, 182 meters long, and tipping the scale at 30,200 tonnes.

"Chelsea, you'd think you'd never seen her before."

I poked Itey in the stomach, "You were staring too, dumbstuff."

Waving goodbye to my dad - who had a meeting to get to and didn't have time to hang around – we shouldered our luggage and started up the gang plank.

It always takes a few minutes to make our way all the way down to Deck 3, which is where the teen programme houses its members. Every summer, the Princess offers a sponsorship where teens between the ages of 16 and 19 are welcome to come aboard and work part-time for the summer. They get to lifeguard, cook, perform – and then when they're off duty, enjoy the luxury of a cruise.

Itey and I are exceptions to this, however. Neither of us are physically _in _the programme. He works with his dad – 'Captain Training 101' we all call it – while I _run_ the teen programme. It's hard work, and there's a lot of yelling involved, but it's a heck of a lot of fun.

Ignoring Itey, who'd been ranting about having to eat dinner with the passengers every night, I unlocked the door to my stateroom – 3001. My personal Oceanview Double. It's not huge, in fact, it's smaller than your average hotel room, but on the Princess it's home. TV, bed, couch, bathroom, there isn't much more you really need.

Tossing my duffel onto the bed, I started putting stuff away. It was likely that this would be one of the few free minutes I had to myself before getting ready to accommodate however many teens would be joining us 'regular crew'.

"Ruse! You're here! _Finally!_" I whipped around in time to see Buttons Lee throw herself at me in excitement. "You won't believe how boring it is here right now. The only interesting thing that's happened all week was when Skittery got his head stuck in the deck rail." She flopped onto my bed. "If I get roped into sterilizing any more stethoscopes, I will go insane."

Buttons was another member of 'regular crew', teens who had parents onboard and either lived on the ship, or worked on her **every** summer. Dr. Lee ran the sick bay, and Buttons was often roped into helping him.

"So Mush and Skitts are here?" I asked, naming Miguel and Erik, both of whom had been staple parts of our Princess-family for at least half a decade.

"Yeah, so's Bumlets and Swifty, and every one else is coming in tomorrow." She paused, quickly counting out every one on her fingers, "Oh, and the sputch is coming with the newbs, he's got a cousin coming up." She was referring to Alex, or 'Dutchy' as his nickname should have been.

Two days. We were just two days away from being all together again, a real family.

"Well, well, well. I was wondering why Itey was cowering in his stateroom." Another of my friends – my best one, this time – had appeared in the doorway. I've known Racetrack Higgins for my entire life, and he's almost more of a brother than Itey is.

"Look who decided to join us." He entered the room, and swept me up in a hug. Race lives onboard, and with the exception of the few weeks every year that he comes to live at my house, I don't get to see him all that often. Pressed to his shoulder, I sniffed. "You've been smoking."

He took a step back, affronted. "So what if I have?" A pause. "You aiming to tell?"

Before leaving last summer, I'd taken his entire stash of cigarettes and tossed them overboard, making him promise to quit. He had seemed to be improving when he came up for Christmas, and then Easter – but now…

"I thought you promised to stop." My eyes bored into his, and his expression was registering on the guilty scale.

"I think I'll just go, now." Buttons was backing out of the room, but I didn't stop my silent confrontation with Racetrack to watch her go.

"I am, okay? Trust me. You left me going cold turkey, it's hard."

"Well it wouldn't be hard if you hadn't started in the first place."

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After letting Race off the hook – for now – I'd gone up to Deck 11 to see how things were faring. Rows and rows of vacant deck chairs surrounded the empty golf cage and shuffle boards, all except one.

"Skittery, you chog!" I hurled myself at the lanky youth, calling out the insult used to describe a chair hog. "Can't you see that you need to let ladies have the only available seat?"

He looked around, a little surprised, before gallantly rising. "Anything for you, Lady Ruse."

We hugged, exchanged 'what have you been up to's' and then I moved on. Walking through the empty decks was creepy, so many staterooms – all empty. No one in the restaurants, shops, pool, anywhere. It was weird to think that in just a few days, the ship would be crawling with over 600 passengers. But such is life on _the_ _lo-oooove boat – ah!_

**Closing Comments: **Love Boat Trivia! Ruse mentions that there's six boats in the fleet; there's the Pacific Princess which this fic is set on, but also the Island Princess, the Stella Solaris, the Pearl of Scandinavia, the Royal Viking Sky and the Royal Princess. (All of which, of course, come from the TV Show which inspired the fic.)

The upload date on this fic is every Saturday. On Saturday, October 28th there will be no update – as I will be organizing the results of the casting call. The next update will be November 3rd.

**This casting call is currently closed. It may be reopened at some point during the story, but at the moment I am not accepting any more applications. Thanks to those who submitted a character!**

If you are interested in joining the cast of The Love Boat, please fill out the following and send it to me in either an email or a review.

**Name:  
Nickname (and why):  
Family/Home Life:  
Personality:  
Hair Style and Color:  
Eye Color:  
Clothing Style:  
Other (regarding appearance):  
Perfect Date:  
Ideal First Meeting (no character names, please):  
Preferred Newsie (Love Interest):  
Back-Up #1:  
Back-Up #2:  
Preferred Newsie (Friend):  
Preferred Newsie (Friend):  
Passenger or Crew:  
If Crew, What Position (Arts, Culinary, Lifeguard, etc)?  
Character's Interests:  
Contact Info (Your FF account if in an email, or your email if in an anonymous review): **

A few helpful notes on getting into the story:

- Make your character interesting and original: not every one is a tragic orphan.  
- Yes, you have a favorite newsie, but please don't write their name everywhere or in all caps.  
- Beauty won't necessarily make the newsies love you more.

Please bear the following in mind:  
- I reserve the right to choose whether or not submissions are utilized, and I alone choose which newsie each character is paired with.  
- You may or may not get the position or newsie you request.  
- At some point, your character may disappear from the story.

Thank you!


	2. In The Calm Before The Storm

**Authoress's Notes:** Yes. It's late. In fact, it's _beyond_ late. It's verging on being considerably … 'overdue'. I don't have any _good_ excuses. Except that I lost my chapter plan and was too lazy to write another one. (Scratch that last part. Never. Happened.) Without _further_ delay – the Love Boat, chapter two.

**Chapter Two: "In The Calm Before The Storm" **

"Would you guys watch this?" Daniel Gray was balancing a full sized apple pie in his right hand, which he held out over the top of one of the cafeteria-style tables in the crew mess hall. "Kloppman wants me to go mop up the stupid kitchen." His friends, seated around their usual table, were staring up at the pie with amusement.

"Sure, we'll watch it for you," Adair Cimino, sitting just to Daniel's left was saying, her head bobbing emphatically. "Just stick it on the table." Her bright grin was both innocent and full of energy as she moved her tray of food over to make room for his pie. Her eyes caught Skittery's, who was sitting across the table, and leering back at her.

"Put down the pie, Pie." The often moody teen had brightened, as he eyed the dessert hungrily. "We'll take good care of it."

Pie Eater grinned brightly, despite being known for eating an entire pie every day for lunch, he was somehow able to maintain exceptionally white teeth, and an athletic build. "Thanks guys – just watch it, okay? Don't let it get knocked off the table or anything." Not only were his homemade pies renowned for being delicious, but the fact that he managed to make one every single day was awe-inspiring. It was clear to every one that Pie Eater just loved to bake – even if was a little too trusting with pies.

Having put his lunch down, he disappeared into the kitchen.

A short silence descended on the five remaining at the table – Skittery, Adair, Alec, Swifty and Snoddy, who was doing his best to revitalize the conversation, while wiping his characteristically runny nose on a paper napkin. "So, uh, did every one have a good flight out here? I did, except for a little turbulence coming in over – "

"You can cut the act, you whore," Skittery directed at him, wiping spaghetti sauce off of his fork. "He's gone. It's ours."

Alec – known as Bumlets for a reason he rarely disclosed – rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's not do go through all this again. Remember what happened last year?"

"The 'Great Cream Pie Fight' of '05," Adair's eyes were practically glowing as she thought back to the huge food fight that had started in the crew mess, resulting in double duty for the entire teenaged crew – the straight-laced Ruse included. "And only one rule, too - no eating, just throwing!" Not that she had necessarily abided by this direction, unable to resist chowing down on an exceptionally sugary chocolate cream pie.

"You oughta know, Cheater."

The act had been another allusion as to why her nickname was so appropriate.

"Who cares about that?" Skittery wasn't known for being the nicest of the crew members, skittish? Yes. Jittery? Sure. A little bit of a flirt? Why not? Nice? Well, being polite and agreeable was not exactly at the top of his list. "Come on? Don't you guys get it? He put the pie down on the table. He walked away. To me, it looks like he just gave us a pie." With his now clean fork, he stabbed straight into the center of the dessert, grinning ruthlessly down at the hole he left in the dough. "I say we dig in."

"Come on, Skitts, we don't –" Bumlets was ignored as Skittery leaned back to announce to those in the mess that if they wanted free pie, all they needed was a fork. This proclamation earned him a reproachful look from his friend. "One of these days, Pie Eater's going to ram one of his pie's straight up your – "

"Guys, come on! Stop it!" Cheater had to throw herself completely across the table to stop Skittery from attacking Bumlets, and still only managed to catch a hold of his shirt sleeve. It took the combined efforts of herself and Swifty to restrain him properly.

"What is this?" Swifty – who's nickname was earned for the ability to play the piano at rapid fire, and not for the common misconception of his speed in general – glowered sourly at the two. "Pie asked us to _watch _his pie, not eat it. Or did you simply forget that part?"

"Well, I'm watching Snoddy stuff it in his fat face, if that counts for anything."

Those sitting at the table who _weren't _interested in finishing off Pie Eater's lunch, turned to stare at Snoddy in disgust as he steadily finished off a solid quarter of the pie. Taking this moment to jerk his arm out of Swifty's hold, Skittery joined his friend, loudly commenting on how good the pie was.

Bumlets couldn't take any more. His daily quota of 'Skittery' had been filled, and he wasn't going to sit and listen to his friend whine, complain or put down any more. Something had gotten Skittery into a bad mood – which wasn't exactly challenging – and now he was intolerable. Not to mention whatever had made Snoddy get in on it, maybe his allergy medicines were playing with his head again. Whatever it was, Bumlets wasn't going to stick around to find out. "I'm out of here. You guys are sick."

"Don't be so sore, Bummers," Skittery called after him. "If it were pumpkin, you know you'd be digging in right now." He had to raise his voice to be heard now, as those at other tables who'd seen the original exchange began to mutter about it to each other. "You know it, Bumlets! You'd be digging in, too!"

On the other side of the room, the occupants of table number two were having a lewd discussion about why Buttons Lee had such a hang up on Itey – a topic which the Italian was quickly getting sick of.

"Think it's 'cause of his extremely –"

"Okay. Enough. Stop, stop – "  
"Wait, wait – Buttons is _still_ hung up on him?" The speaker had just entered the mess hall, and plopped down into a seat between Miguel Meyers and Louis Ballat, seemingly unaware of the youth that was trailing him. "She hasn't figured out that our Itey's a wuss?"

Itey was hard pressed to choose between scowling and breaking into a grin. Alexander Durecht, known as Dutchy for the same reason that the Italian was 'Itey', had finally shown up for work. "Where have you been? First you call in to say you're going to be here early, then you call in to say you'll be late – and here you are in between! What's up with you?"

Dutchy laughed, grabbing a french fry from Caleb Riley's lunch tray. "What's up with _me_?"

"Woah – you know you've got a shadow, Dutch?"

The blond blinked, looking at his eye patched friend quizzically. "I've got a what?"

The teen who had uncomfortably taken up place behind him, stared stiffly down at the group through wire-rimmed glasses. "He said you've got a shadow, Alex. And he's referring to me."

"Oh. Oh, _right_." As if just remembering himself, Dutchy stood and motioned to his 'shadow' – receiving bemused expressions from his friends. "This is my cousin, Mark – "

" – Spencer – " His cousin interrupted, rolling his eyes. He'd heard that mistake too many times to keep count, and Alex's indifference to the corrections was beginning to grate thoroughly on his nerves.

" – Spencer, sure." It was obvious that Dutchy wasn't paying attention, "He's supposed to be staying with us for the summer. My Oma thought he'd have more fun here." Customary introductions over, Alex promptly forgot his cousin again, as he sat back down in his seat to be bombarded with questions about his grandmother. Dutchy's Oma was notorious for performing feats not usually attempted by people her age, and this year she'd taken up ice climbing.

"Hey, Spencer, you can take a seat, y'know." Miguel Meyers – known as Mush for his oatmeal-like coloring – motioned for the rigid teen to sit down in the empty chair next to his.

"Uh, thanks." He took the offered seat, and found himself examining the two guys on either side. To his right was Hull, who's name he learned as Dutchy was taking more of his french fries, to his left was the youth who'd told him to sit. "So, you guys work here every summer?"

Mush was nodding excitedly between sips of Coke, "Yeah. It's great, you get paid to hang out in the middle of the ocean. It's the greatest thing. The greatest part is how you – " Spencer found himself starting to tune out, paying attention only long enough to count how many times the word 'great' was repeated. There was five… six… seven. "Spencer?"

"Oh, huh?"

"That was the bell," Hull supplied, rising from his seat and grabbing his tray. "Means you have to go to your section head."

"Right." A quick look at the retreating group confirmed Spencer's fears – he'd been left on his own. _Again. _

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"Girls – girls, _please_." Medda Larkson tossed her hands up in the air in defeat. Practically throwing herself into one of the seats in the Café Theatre, she scowled at the group of giggling females that she was once again enlisted into working with – not to mention the one boy who consistently joined her theatre group.

She wasn't entirely sure why Miguel Meyers would subject himself to the mockery of being the only boy in a group of girls, but he didn't seem to have any problem with it. Medda herself loved Mush, he was attentive, polite, and a damn good singer – but best of all was the fact that he didn't gossip. Or worse, _giggle._

"It's just so _good_ to be back!" Audrey Brown was bouncing on the balls of her feet in the little huddle of friends that had gathered on the Café Theatre's stage. All four – Willow, Dodger, Cheater and Taps – had known each other for years as only fellow actresses can. "Final exams just seemed to drag on and on."

"Good to be _back?_" Dodger was incredulous – she had been living aboard the Princess year-round for almost half a decade. "Sometimes I just wish I could get off this floating tin can."

Willow took up a mock-shocked expression, "How dare you refer to her as a tin can. _Clearly_, she's not made of tin."

"Anyway, I'm glad to be here," the Australian murmured, gazing around at her circle of friends happily. "Maybe I'll have a chance this year."

"Oh, with who?"

She laughed, stepping away from Cheater, who was advancing with a determined expression on her face. "You know very well who. He didn't bring his girl friend this year, at least."

"Lucy? That slut. She didn't even do anything, just hung off of him all the time."

"Yeah," Audrey looked at her feet. Images of the beautiful blond dancing with Racetrack at crew parties, sitting practically on top of him during meals, and locking lips with him on the deck were memories of a much sadder time for Taps. "But I have a feeling that this year, things'll be different…"

**Closing Comments:** I'm so, _so_ sorry about the lateness of this. But right now, I'm going to forget about that part, and talk about what I do need to say. I know not every one is in this chapter. There is a good reason; those of you who are coming to be crew in the teen programme (more or less every one else) will debut next chapter. Promise. Every one who is an experienced crew member has shown up in this chapter, with the exception of Eli, because I honestly didn't have a spot for her yet. (So she'll appear next, too, although she should have been in this chapter.)  
Thanks all of you for your patience!

(Oh, and Lucy is in reference to Max Casella's girl friend, Lucy Boryer from back when he was on the set of Newsies. I don't know anything about her, except that she was what I just said. I don't really think she's a slut, and I'm not a 100 sure she's blonde, either… Oh well.)


	3. Embarkment

**Authoress' Notes**: Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews, every one! I fully understand your need for a character chart – God knows I use one when I'm writing. . For reference before this chapter; here's the chart of character names, and nicknames. (Some people submitted characters without last names, and I was too lazy to come up with them, so they don't have one. As of yet, at least.) (Also, they're in alphabetical order by Newsie name.)

**Acorn** – Rachael Acree  
**Aqua** – Alissa Wood  
**Artemis **– Ashley Greco  
**Boots** – Jason Field  
**Boz** – Amanda Boswell  
**Bumlets** – Alec Lyle  
**Buttons** – Alexandra Lee  
**Cheater** – Adair Cimino**  
Cinematography** - Paz**  
Cowboy** – Jack Kelly**  
Crutchy **– Samuel Powers**  
Racetrack** – Anthony Higgins  
**Dodger** – Riley **  
Dutchy** – Alexander Durecht  
**Eli** – Elizabeth Connor**  
Fae** – Saiorse Callan**  
Filch** – Rebekkah Williams**  
Hollywood** – Danielle Phillips**  
Hull** – Caleb Riley**  
Itey** – Vincent Davenport  
**Jake** – Jake Gray**  
Kid Blink** – Louis Ballat**  
Klutz** – Joycelin Smith**  
Morris** – Morris Delancey**  
Mush** – Miguel Meyers**  
Oscar** – Oscar Delancey**  
Pie Eater** – Daniel Gray**  
Racetrack** – Anthony Higgins  
**Recherché** – Christina Lawson  
**Ruse** – Chelsea Davenport  
**Rushmore** – Lily Williams  
**Skittery **– Erik Vaclav  
**Snitch** – Carlos Giovanni  
**Snoddy** – Travis O'Neil  
**Spades** – Brittany Hamilton  
**Specs** – Spencer Harford  
**Spot** – Simon Conlon  
**Spotlight** – Emma Johnson  
**Stress** – Jessa Rhian  
**Swifty** – James Yuan  
**Swirls** – Tegan Ann Fox  
**Taps** – Audrey Brown  
**Willow** – Emma Edwards  
**Wrecker** – Molly Maguire

And what a long list it is. X.x I had to make a lot of the Newsies' real names up right… now. Cudos to anyone who recognizes where I got Crutchy's name from. (It's not like I'll be referring to him by his real name too often anyway.) Crutchy reminds me _a lot_ of the character he's named for.

**Chapter Three: "Embarkment" **

"Come on – get up, guys!" Dutchy's fist connected with the heavy wood of one of the many stateroom doors in the crew hall, "Bumlets, Pie! Rise and shine, it's moo_oo_orning!" Knocking on the door a few more times, he moved on to the next. "Swifty – Hull! Up and at 'em!"

Being the morning runner wasn't necessarily Dutchy's favorite chore. Sure, it meant being one of the few people able to nab a cup of warm coffee in the morning, as opposed to the cold glop that was left over by the time every one else made it to the mess, but that meant being up pretty early.

Way too early.

"Skittery, come on!"

Of course, another downside meant having to face the wrath of every one who was opposed to getting up at six o'clock in the morning during their summer vacation, but Dutchy had learned to get around that part of the job.

"Skittery – seriously! You're so slow. Move your ass."

"You have three seconds, Dutchy, before you're going to have to move yours."

With a grin, Dutchy took off down the hall. He had the advantage of an empty corridor to race through, which Skittery – when he finally stepped out of his stateroom – lacked. "Jeez, Mush – get out of the way! _Move_!"

"I can't believe those idiots," Buttons was yawning as she and Willow slipped out of their room. "It's too early to be so dumb – _good morning, Itey_!" The teen hurried off in the Italian's direction, leaving her room mate to shut the door, shaking her head in bemusement.

Exiting from the room to the right of theirs was Ruse, frantically struggling to kick her door shut and flag Dodger down from across the hall. "Riley – Riley!" Her shouting was in vain as the crew member leapt forward to kick a fluffy plush soccer ball back at Kid Blink, before chasing after him. "Ah, crap." Annoyed, she whipped around to face the opposite direction, spotting Racetrack. "Race – Race! - Come here!"

As he turned to ask what she needed, Dutchy, returning from his flight to freedom, crossed Ruse's line of view, making her forget about Racetrack.

"Dutchy – great, I need – DUTCHY!" He jumped back at the sound of her shout.

"What?"

"I need a room for your cousin. He can't stay where he is, we need that room for the teens coming in today. So I want – "

He rolled his eyes, trying to look past her. "Put him in my room. In Fox's place."

"In… in Fox's place?" She was taken aback at such a suggestion. How could she put _Spencer_ in _Fox's_ room. Fox was the epitome of life on the Princess. Fox was – well, he was _irreplaceable!_ How Ruse could put someone in her boy friend's spot was unthinkable, even if he _was _in Paris with his grandparents for the summer.

Dutchy interpreted the look on her face correctly, "Look. I can't stay in that stateroom by myself. Put Spencer in there, he's got nowhere else to go."

After a long pause, the vacation director finally relented. "Fine. Fine. Tell Spencer he's staying with you for the rest of the summer." She blinked, shaking her head as though to clear it of thoughts of her boyfriend, before rushing off to shout out the names of people she still needed to speak to.

When she heard her name called, Audrey appeared at Ruse's side almost instantly, having just left her room. "What do you need?"

"You and Race are going to man registration."

"Me and Race?"

The V.D. raised an eyebrow, "Yeah. That's what I said, right?"

"Oh. Yeah. Yes. Sure. What time?"

"Uh. Now."

A few feet away, Taps was met with the knowing glances of her friends, especially as the Italian object of her affections stepped forward to ask, "You comin'?"

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The light breeze blowing across the San Diego harbor tugged at the pieces of paper taped down onto the folding table that Mush and Kid Blink had carried down the ship's gang plank. The furniture had been set up in a matter of seconds, and was now being used for the teen programme's check in. It was still a little early for the applicants to arrive, and the six crew members cramped around the small, unstable structure were involved in a heated discussion about Racetrack's alleged ability to hold a spoon on his nose for over five minutes.

The debate soon fell off topic, as there was neither a spoon nor a watch to prove or disprove the Italian's claim. Minutes slowly ticked by, and despite Dodger's often loud and hyper nature, a silence fell upon the group.

"You know, I bet I could hold a spoon on my nose for _six_ minutes."

Willow looked up in disbelief at Kid Blink, who'd broken the silence with his comment. "You could not!"

"I could, too. Seven, even."

The discussion had returned in full force, resulting in a loud argument between two of their number as to who could maintain a spoon on their nose for the longest period of time. Amused, the girls had begun to take sides, agreeing with their competitor whole heartedly, even as the boasts grew less and less feasible.

"When we're done here, I'll show you – three hours! I can do three hours!"

"You can't even sit still for three hours, you _graftah_."

As Blink prepared to lunge for his friend, he nearly fell out of his chair at the sight of the girl standing before their table. It was her eyes that first caught his attention – green, with just a hint of brown in them. His own eyes quickly traveled to view the rest of her face, taking in her fair skin and freckles before doing his hometown justice by putting into use the Manhattan once-over. Giving a low whistle, he seemed to forget her presence and turned to Mush, informing his best friend with just a glance, that he was in love.

Annoyed at her friend's behavior, Dodger was the first to ask the girl if she had come to check in for the cruise – simultaneously shooting Blink a dirty look.

"Yes," she seemed unfazed at Blink's reaction, either that or she hadn't noticed it, "I'm Jessa. Rhian." She handed over a stack of papers carefully folded and held together with a large paper clip, courtesy of her father who had jumped at the chance to sign Jessa up for the programme as soon as she had asked. A little hesitantly, she tried to catch a glimpse of the paper taped to the table, "Uhm. What time does the ship leave?"

"The ship will be boarding presently, for the moment you are asked to wait with your luggage until such a time as you are instructed to board. Thank you." The speech had been both scripted and memorized years earlier, with slight variations depending on who was reciting it. In Taps' case, the recitation was text book, word for word.

"Oh. Thanks."

There were only seconds separating Jessa's departure from the check in booth and Rachael's arrival. "Hi, uhm – this the check in?" She was met with unenthusiastic nods, and fumbled with her bag to pull out the necessary papers. Making eye contact with first Kid Blink, she opened her mouth to speak, "I'm – "

"Last name?" He interrupted, boredly.

"Ah, Acree."

There was no verbal response, just a gesture that she should speak to either Taps or Race, sitting to his left, indicating the sign that said he and Mush were handling last names from Q to Z.

"Uhm. All right." Focusing her attention now on these two, she held back a frustrated groan when Racetrack directed her at last to the two girls on the far left of the table. "Okay, this had better be the right place – "

"It is," Willow supplied, happily. "A through G."

"Acree. Rachael Acree." Finally having found the correct place, Rachael handed over her papers, had her name crossed off the list and was on her way towards a nearby bench, which is what the six crew members wished they could be doing.

The Californian summer sun had risen into the sky, and the heat was quickly rising with it. Mush had already taken off his shirt, a feat which neither Racetrack nor Blink could do without losing dignity to his well-defined abs. As the minutes wore on, Race abandoned his seat next to Taps to sit at one end of the table with his friends, discussing Blink's new found infatuation.

The three girls at the opposite end were discussing something of a different nature – the tall youth standing only a few feet away. While Taps claimed to only have eyes for Racetrack, even she had to admit that the newcomer was handsome, with his dark hair and broad shoulders. In fact, she could almost picture herself with him, if it weren't for the Italian only a few feet away – that is, until he made eye contact.

"Look, here he comes!" Dodger whispered excitedly, earning a jab in the ribs from Willow.

"Hey," His voice was smooth, and confident. He was clearly _very_ sure of himself. "Name's Kelly. Jack Kelly." He smiled down at the Australian, who happened to be sitting foremost of the three girls, and handed over a handful of crumpled forms. "I can tell that signing up for this trip wasn't such a bust after all." He winked, "You're…?"

Taps blushed, all thoughts of Racetrack gone. "Audrey."

Balancing an arm on the table, Jack leaned forward on his elbow, "I look forward to seeing you around then, _Audrey_."

"What makes you think she'll be seeing you?"

He blinked, the suave and arrogant attitude vanishing in an instant. "What?"

"You heard me," Race had moved his chair back into place next to Taps, and was now pointing off at a bench on the edge of one of the nearby docks, "Why don't you just go sit over there, is that okay with you?" The Italian wasn't sure what he was doing. Certainly he didn't _like_ Taps more than anyone else, surely he would have protected anyone else from this Jack Kelly person. If it had been Dodger or Willow, even. Right? "Did you hear me?"

Jack froze in his spot. "Are you _serious_?"

Sensing that their short friend may have bitten off more than he could chew, Mush stood at the same time that Blink replied, "He's serious."

Sparing a glance in Taps' direction, the newcomer couldn't fathom what all the fuss was about. Sure, the girl was pretty, but was she really worth a fight with an Italian, a pirate and André the Giant? "Hey, look," backing down, he threw up his hands in surrender. "I didn't know she was _your_ girl or anything. See this? I'm walking away." Shaking his head in amusement at the exchange, Jack departed stalking off in the direction that Racetrack had pointed, having caught sight of the girl standing at the end of the dock.

Before he was less than three feet away, his swagger had returned.

"Race, I can't believe you!" Dodger was the first to jump in and comment on the altercation, "That guy could have crushed you!"

The Italian only shrugged, trying not to look as nauseous as he felt, and definitely trying to avoid Taps' wide-eyed glance. "That guy's an ass."

"You wanna talk about asses, Race?" Blink, for all that he'd stood up for his friend only moments earlier, punched him in the arm. "You just sent him off after Jessa! Thanks, man, thanks!"

The next few hours passed without noticeable mention, teens showed up to check in, Dodger became increasingly frustrated with Blink's constant moaning reference to "his" Jessa, more teens arrived, Taps and Racetrack could hardly bear to look at each other, more teens showed up to check in, and by the end of the check in period, only Willow and Mush were still on speaking terms.

"Thank you, Amanda. Actually, you're the last one on the list." Taps triumphantly crossed off 'Amanda Boswell', and turned to Dodger, ignoring Racetrack completely, "We're finally done!"

The group had seen every one from Rachael Acree, Amanda Boswell and Saiorse Callan all the way down to Rebekkah Williams. "I guess we can head – " Dodger started, before realizing that Blink had already begun to fold up the table. "Well, if some people weren't so rude that they'd take things directly out from under you – "

Blink turned to her and scowled, not knowing why she was being so cold to him in the first place, and simply returning the gesture. "Shut up, Riley."

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Elizabeth Connor, known among her crew friends as either Eli or Nova, looked out at the group of programme-teens in front of her. They looked like they could be a fun group to work with, twenty-five of them in total, if you counted Dutchy's cousin, that is. Eli's friends among the crew seemed to think as much, too, with the exception of the six who had been manning the booth. No one knew what had happened out there, but upon their return it was noted by all that half of them weren't even speaking with each other. Dodger and Blink were both completely out of sorts, the former being sullen and the latter love struck.

However, there had been little time to ponder the dent in the friendships, as the teens needed to be ushered into the meeting room for their "getting-to-know-you" seminar. Ruse was already finishing up her lengthy speech about commitment to the roles and duties of working on a cruise ship, being respectful to the passengers and other crew members, and was just now getting into the jobs that would be assigned. Even Eli, who had been zoned out for most of the oration, knew her cue had come up.

Rising from her seat near Ruse's at the head of the room, Nova made eye contact with the those sitting directly in front of her. There was the youngest of the programme-crew, Ashley Greco. Nova recognized her because of the interview that the girl had been required to come to some time before, identifying herself as being able to handle the work despite her age. Next to her was Samuel Powers, the only invalid on the ship, his fiberglass crutch leaning against his chair.

"Hi!" Eli's voice echoed around the room, loud and clear, "Some of you may have met me on your way in, but for those of you who did not, I'm Elizabeth Connor. You've just heard Chelsea," the name came out awkward-sounding, as Eli was unused to referring to the Ruse as such, "speak about the roles that you will all be assigned – and I'm in charge of the assignments."

She could see that the teens sat up a little straighter in front of her, "There are three groups that you will be split into. One is led by Marc Kloppman, which is the kitchen staff. Your main job is to wait on the tables and clean the kitchen. The second is run by Medda Larkson, which is for theatre, and the third is known as "the Misfit Toys", where those who do not fit in with the kitchen or the stage are assigned more random tasks."

Pointing in the direction of the main doors out of the meeting room, Eli indicated the three bristol boards taped to the wall next to the doorframe, "You are asked to please sign up for the position you'd like now, and when you're done, please wait just outside the doors where you will be shown to your staterooms."

Ten long minutes ticked by, the crew spending most of it talking about how annoyed they were that it was taking so long. Finally, it seemed that every one had signed their names to the roster, and Swifty was pushed forward to show them around.

Scowling at Skittery, who was responsible for the large bruise in the middle of his back, Swifty stepped into the middle of the group. "I'm James Yuan, and I'm taking you to the staterooms. Which is fancy ship talk for bedrooms." Taking off down the main hall, he led the group up to the large crew elevator. "I'm not sure we're all going to fit, so please break off into two groups – " He watched as they immediately split into guys on one side and girls on the other, and rolled his eyes, " – alright, I'll go down with the first group. Second group, we're going all the way down to Deck Three."

Having successfully maneuvered his group – the guys – down to the correct deck, they stood in wait for the girls' group. Even before the doors to the lift slid open, Swifty could hear an argument between two of the girls escalating in volume. _What_ it was about, he could not fathom, but the moment they all stepped out onto the deck, he could tell _who_ was arguing.

Both girls had brown hair, one with a lighter shade then the other, and both were red in the face from yelling. Running a hand through his hair, Swifty stepped between them. "All right, all right. Stop it." They immediately stopped their shouting to give him identically scathing looks. "Can I get your names, please?"

"Paz," muttered the first, openly scowling.

Not to be outdone, the second quickly answered, "Molly Maguire."

"All right, Paz, Molly – uh – stop. Knock it off." As they had both fallen silent, Swifty led the group forward again, deciding to pretend that the argument had never happened. "Okay, so this is Deck Three – it's where all the teen crew has their staterooms."

"Excuse me, James?" The speaker was the same gimpy kid that Skittery had pointed out to Swifty earlier, also making several snide remarks about his disability.

"Uh, yeah?"

"What's on the other decks, if this is just Deck Three."

Swifty blinked, "Uh, the first two are mechanical stuff, you won't ever need to go down there. Period. And, so we're on Deck Three. Four's got the med center, and the shore excursion deck, and reception. Deck Five is for shopping, and has the dance club and theatre and stuff. Six is all rooms, and it's where we keep most of the boats – "

"You mean life boats?" One of the girls interrupted.

"Yeah. Seven and Eight are all rooms, Nine's got shopping and cafés and stuff, Ten has more of that and then the last one, Deck Eleven is all sun deck." He blinked, again, and turned down the hall, not ready to face more questions. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a crumpled rooming list. "So these are the rooms, I'll – uh – call out your names and tell you your number. The first ten are all regular crew, and then you guys come after that. Odd numbers on the right, even on the left. So, uh – in room 3011 is Jack Kelly and Simon Conlon."

He watched as the two boys, without so much as a second look at each other entered the room.

"In 3012 is Samuel Powers and Jason Field." The gimp and the sixteen-year old that looked like he was only twelve stepped into the room, and Swifty couldn't help but feel sorry for them, Skittery was going to give them both hell. "3013's got Carlos Giovanni and Jake Gray." As the two boys started to move past him, Swifty grabbed a hold of Jake's shoulder. "You aren't related to Daniel, are you?"

The look he got in reply was one of confusion, "Uh, no."

"Oh. Well… carry on then." Glancing at his list, he continued. "Room 3014 has Ashley Greco and Rebekkah Williams." The Ashley girl seemed to be excited, while the other was giving a wistful glance to another girl in the group.

"Is it possible I could change my room mate?"

Now Ashley seemed to be a little disheartened, and Swifty shook his head. "You'd have to take that up with Chelsea, I can't change the list right now. Ashley and Rebekkah it is." No longer watching to see the similar hurt look on the girls' faces, Swifty continued on. "3015 is Oscar and Morris Delancey."

The brothers only spared each other a quick glance and a shrug, before shouldering their way past Swifty and into their room .

"In 3016 there is Brittany Hamilton and Amanda Boswell. 3017 has Alissa Wood and Danielle Phillips. And 3018 has Joycelin Smith and Jess Rhian." The girls moved past him into their rooms, and Swifty went on to pair Tegan Ann Fox with Christina Lawson, Saiorse Callan with Emma Johnson, and Rachael Acree with Lily Williams. Lastly, he found himself staring at the two girls who had been screaming at each other.

"And, uh, you two are in 3022."

**Closing Comments: **I originally intended there to be more in this chapter, but I got impatient writing it, so I'll just incorporate it into the next one. And YES, now I will finally have time to be more regular in my updates. There will probably be a new chapter next weekend. (Hopefully.)


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